This past weekend, community volunteers and Premier Mushrooms Employees alike joined together in a noble effort to clean Colusa’s Greenbelt running along the Sacramento River. The result of this effort was 61.7 lbs. of trash and recyclables being removed from the local ecology. The cleanup was preceded by a morning tour of Premier Mushroom’s Farm and followed by a Sponsored lunch at Colusa’s own Steelhead Lodge.

Coastal cleanup day is a statewide event that brings people together from all over California in pursuit of a common goal. That goal is to help clean beaches and inland waterways that are frequently polluted with trash and debris that don’t belong. If left to sit, these effluents can be harmful or even fatal to all types of marine life and can also become a hazard to human health. Coastal Cleanup Day is one of California’s largest volunteer events in the world and had 82,500 participants in 2010 who removed a combined total of 1.2 million pounds. That’s the equivalent of roughly 18,341 64 gallon residential garbage bins filled to the top! To put this into perspective, simply pretend you were on a scavenger hunt along all of California’s Coastal Bodies searching for 18 thousand full garbage cans hidden in the landscape. It’s hard to imagine there’s that much waste just floating around in our ecosystem, but on the same token proves the effectiveness of values driven events such as this. We will be sharing the 2012 results on our facebook page as they become available. This year, 55 of the 58 California Counties participated and we were proud to be the only group representing Colusa County. In Addition to California and the rest of the United States, 100 other countries across the globe have been taking active steps towards accomplishing this same goal. Premier would like to give special thanks to its Co-Sponsor, The Steelhead Lodge for its adamant support of our cause. Without them, the event wouldn’t have been complete and it certainly wouldn’t have been as delicious. They were kind enough to provide two different types of mushroom appetizers along with a mouthwatering mushroom chicken alfredo entrée that nearly disappeared as soon as it arrived. Premier would also like to thank all the dedicated volunteers who made this event possible by taking time out of their busy schedules to support this incredible cause. Without broad community support, events like this wouldn’t happen. To honor this year’s participants, we are planning on bringing the River Cleanup back to Colusa in 2013 and making it BIGGER AND BETTER in every way possible. In the meantime, we have provided a link for those who wish to get more involved right now. The Coastal Stewardship Pledge is a great way to do so and we encourage everyone to check it out. You even get a free tote bag for following through with it. Thanks again to everyone who made this event possible; we’ve provided a several pictures of the cleanup below for your enjoyment.